Baseball Talk Philadelphia

September 13, 2016

Franklyn Kilome allowed just one hit over seven shutout innings on Monday night in game one of the South Atlantic League Finals (Photo: Baseball Betsy)

By Brandon Apter, Sports Talk Philly editor

Out of the four Philadelphia Phillies minor league clubs that made the postseason, the least talked about might be the Class 'A Lakewood Blueclaws. Well, they are the only Phils affiliate that remains at this point. They started the year 4-16, finished the first half 29-40, 13.5 games behind the division leader. The second half was a different story as the Blueclaws posted a 45-25 record, best in the South Atlantic League, to clinch a berth in the playoffs. Lakewood swept Hagerstown in two games, advancing to the SAL Finals, which began last night in Rome, Georgia against the Rome Braves. The Blueclaws didn't skip a beat from their sweep, shutting out the R-Braves 5-0 in the opener to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

The big standout from Monday night was No. 9 ranked Phillies prospect Franklyn Kilome. The 21-year-old right-hander had mixed results in his first season with Lakewood, going 5-8 with a 3.85 ERA in 23 starts. In game one of the finals, he showed why he's ranked so high on the prospect rankings, spinning seven one-hit innings, striking out nine and walking two. This was his first start since September 4, when he struck out 10 over six shutout innings against Greensboro.

"I felt really good. It might have been my best game," the native of the Dominican Republic told MiLB.com. "It was important to win Game 1, so I definitely wanted to be well. My curveball was good. Very good."

Including last night's outing, Kilome is 4-1 with a 1.98 ERA over his last 10 starts, allowing just 12 earned runs in 54.2 innings and striking out 73 while walking just 13. He was followed on the mound by Grant Dyer, the Phillies eighth round pick from this year's draft, and he struck out three and didn't allow a hit in the eighth or ninth inning.

Lakewood took a 1-0 lead in the third as Damek Tomscha plated Jose Pujols with an RBI-double. In the seventh, Carlos Duran singled with one out and Emmanuel Marrero reached second on an error in the next at-bat. Mark Laird followed with an RBI-single, scoring Duran to make it a 2-0 game. Another Rome error allowed both Marrero and Laird to score with two outs, extending the Lakewood lead to four. Wilson Garcia made it a 5-0 lead with a solo home run in the eighth.

Pujols finished the night 2-for-5 with a run scored while eight of the nine Lakewood batters each tallied a hit. Damek Tomscha and Grenny Cumana had doubles with Wilson Garcia hitting the game's lone home run.

On the Braves side, defensive mishaps were the main issue. They committed three errors, resulting in four unearned runs tacked on to starter Mike Soroka's line. He struck out six over seven innings, allowing the four unearned and didn't walk a batter.

The South Atlantic League Finals continue on Tuesday night in Rome at 7:05 p.m. Seranthony Dominguez (5-2, 2.42 ERA) will get the start for Lakewood against Braves No. 10 prospect Touki Toussaint (4-8, 3.88 ERA).

Four Philadelphia Phillies minor league affiliates made it to the postseason, but now only two of them remain in play after Friday night's action.

The Lakewood Blueclaws earned a sweep over Hagerstown and advance to the finals, Reading avoided the sweep with an offensive outburst at home while Lehigh Valley was trounced and eliminated by Scranton Wilkes/Barre. Meanwhile, the GCL Phillies lost in the finals earlier this week to the GCL Cardinals team.

The majority of the Philadelphia Phillies minor league affiliates made the postseason and three of the four began play on Wednesday evening. Unfortunately, only Lakewood came out victorious, with Lehigh Valley, Reading and the GCL Phillies falling in their respective games.

For the GCL Phillies, this spells the end of their season as they dropped the decisive game of the GCL Finals. Both Lehigh Valley and Reading got strong pitching performances, but lacked in the offensive category. Lakewood had a strong showing overall and will have a chance to sweep on Friday night.

Here's a brief recap of Wednesday's playoff action:

Scranton Wilkes/Barre 2, Lehigh Valley 0

The Ironpigs got a strong outing from Ben Lively, but their offense was non existent in a 2-0 loss to Scranton Wilkes/Barre in game one. Lively cruised through the majority of the game, but ran into trouble in the eighth. He got two quick outs and then walked Jonathan Diaz before surrendering a two-run homer to Mason Williams, which would be the difference-maker in the game. Lively exited after 7.2 innings, allowing two runs on five hits. He walked one and struck out eight.

On the offensive end of things, Brock Stassi went 2-for-4 and Cam Perkins had a hit in four at-bats. Nick Williams struggled, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.

The Ironpigs and Railriders continue their first round series on Thursday night. Anthony Vasquez gets the ball for Lehigh Valley.

September 07, 2016

Double-A Reading celebrates clinching the Eastern League East Division in Trenton this past weekend (Kevin Durso/Philliedelphia)

By Brandon Apter, Sports Talk Philly editor

It may still be a few years until the Philadelphia Phillies get back to the postseason, but their minor league affiliates continue to have success in recent years. This season, four of their six farm clubs are in the playoffs with the GCL Phillies, Class 'A' Lakewood, Double-A Reading and Triple-A Lehigh Valley clinching spots. Advanced 'A' Clearwater finished with the best record in the Florida State League, but did not make the postseason due to the two halves system in the lower minor leagues.

Three of the four teams kick of their playoff matchups on Wednesday night while the GCL Phillies are already in the finals against the Cardinals GCL team, forcing a decisive game three after a 3-2 comeback win on Tuesday afternoon. Let's take a look at Lakewood, Reading and Lehigh Valley as they get ready to start postseason play this evening.

The Ironpigs have been the Phillies Triple-A affiliate since they opened for business at Coca-Cola Park in 2008, leading the International League in attendance for four straight seasons (2009-2012) and finishing in the top five in each of their years.

In 2016, the Ironpigs posted a record of 85-58, clinching their second playoff berth in team history with top prospects Jake Thompson, Nick Williams and J.P. Crawford along with guys like Darin Ruf playing a big part in the teams' success. The last time they were in the playoffs, 2011, Lehigh Valley fell to Columbus 3-1 in the Governer's Cup Finals. They begin postseason play on Wednesday night.

During the regular season, the Ironpigs hosted over 602,000 fans and averaged 8,733 per game, good for fourth in the 14-team International League.

August 24, 2016

Mickey Moniak, the No. 1 overall pick from this year's draft, is hitting .289 in the Gulf Coast League (Photo: Baseball Betsy)

By Brandon Apter, Sports Talk Philly editor

The 2016 Major League Baseball draft was an important one for the Philadelphia Phillies, who selected high school outfielder Mickey Moniak with the first overall pick. Six of their next nine picks were pitchers and if 2016 has been any indication, you can never have too much pitching depth. A few weeks after the draft's conclusion, the Phillies 2016 draft class took the field for the first time as members of the organization and for the most part, have had strong results and good signs of potential.

Let's take a look at how the top 10 Phillies draft picks from this season are doing in their first professional season.

August 23, 2016

The Philadelphia Phillies made a handful of deals at the trade deadline in 2015. The big one was the Cole Hamels trade that sent the now former Phillies ace to Texas in exchange for a variety of prospects. One deal that hasn't really gotten a ton of attention involved Ben Revere going to Toronto for two relief pitching prospects, Jimmy Cordero and Alberto Tirado. While Cordero has shown signs of being a future back of the bullpen piece, Tirado's story has gotten interesting this year.

After coming into the Phillies system as a flame throwing reliever, Tirado has since converted the rotation for the first time since 2014 and is finding success despite still showing some holes in his repertoire. He pitched eight innings in relief for the Blueclaws, allowing nine earned runs, before being moved to the rotation, where he has put together a strong span of outings. Since sporting a 10.13 ERA on June 25, Tirado has lowered it to 3.75.

June 17, 2016

Hammond Field in Fort Myers, Florida will host the 2016 Florida State League All-Star Game on June 18. (Brandon Apter/Philliedelphia)

It's a rebuilding year for the Phillies. They were seven games over .500 and now they are a season-worst seven games under .500. While a lot of the focus is on the prospects in Double-A and Triple-A, there have been some impressive players in the lower levels of the minors as well. The Florida State League and South Atlantic League are holding their All-Star Games in the coming week and 12 Phillies prospects are headed to the respective contests. Three players from Class 'A' Lakewood will be going to Lexington, Kentucky for the SAL All-Star Game on Tuesday, June 21 while nine players from Advanced 'A' Clearwater will play in the FSL All-Star Game on Saturday, June 18 in Fort Myers, Florida. Here's who is heading to the respective midseason games from Lakewood and Clearwater.

Lakewood Blueclaws

Jose Pujols (OF) - Ranked as the 24th best prospect in the Phillies organization by MLB.com, Pujols has struggled recently, but has shown off a good power stroke this season. In 61 games, he's hitting just .232, but he has 10 doubles, two triples, 10 home runs, 34 RBI's and 30 runs scored. Since joining the Phillies organization in 2013, he's hitting just .224. He's just 20 years old, so there's plenty of time for Pujols to improve his tools at the plate. His 10 homers are good for third place in the South Atlantic League.

Josh Tobias (2B) - Selected in the 10th round of the 2015 draft, the 23-year-old out of Florida is hitting .285 with 16 doubles, a triple, five homers, 37 RBI's and 28 runs scored. He's in his second full season with the Phillies organization and has hit .303 in 123 games between 2015 and 2016.

Luke Leftwich (RHP) - Leftwich, 22, was a seventh round pick in last year's draft by the Phillies. His 2.15 ERA is ranked fourth in the SAL and his 80 strikeouts lead the league. Leftwich has pitched six or more innings in six of his 11 starts while he's tallied six or more strikeouts in eight of his 11 starts. His last time out, he hurled seven scoreless innings, scattering just four hits while striking out 11.

A group of castoffs and journeyman. From closer Jeanmar Gomez to Andrew Bailey, the Phillies bullpen was expected by many, to easily be the worst in baseball an possibly one of the worst in history. Following an 0-4 start, this group seemed to be living up to that expectation, but as Matt Gelb shows us, there is no one way to build a successful bullpen.

J.P. Crawford is considered the future at shortstop for the Phillies, but who will be his double-play partner? Currently, Cesar Hernandez is holding down the position, but what about Freddy Galvis? Those are only two possibilities of many possibilities. The Good Phight's Matt Winkelman has a few names that you may not know that could join Crawford in the middle of the Phillies diamond for years to come.

When a team is rebuilding, as the Phillies are, a 32-year-old utility infielder rarely enters the train of thought of fans, media members or the organization's top brass. Andres Blanco is a very different story. His impact, not only on the field, but more importantly off, has made a huge difference on the entire roster and especially the young core of Latin American players. Matt Breen of Philly.com tells us more.

The monster haul for reliever Ken Giles seems to get better by the day. Meet Tom Eshelman, a 21-year old pitcher who doesn't possess the power of Vince Velasquez or the pure stuff of a Mark Appel, but this former College World Series star for Cal State Fullerton is thriving in his new organization and is quite happy with where he is.

The Phillies were criticized for many years for the lack of international talent in their system. Times have changed and Sam Donellon tells us why the recent infusion of Latin ballplayers is just what the Phillies needed.

May 06, 2016

On Friday afternoon, the Phillies announced their organizational awards for the month for April. Second baseman Josh Tobias was named Hitter of the Month, Ben Lively earned Pitcher of the Month and second baseman Scott Kingery was tabbed as the Defender of the Month.

Tobias, 23, was selected in 10th round of the 2015 draft by the Phillies. After hitting .321 in 61 games with Short Season Williamsport, Tobias began 2016 in Lakewood and hasn't skipped a beat. Hit .348 average is good for 6th in the South Atlantic League, his on-base percentage (.459) and RBI's (20) rank 3rd and his OPS (.987) places 4th. Tobias has hit eight doubles, a triple, two home runs and scored 12 runs. He's also shown good plate discipline, walking 14 times to just 12 strikeouts in 89 at-bats. In the month of April, he slashed .347/.462/.560 with two homers and 19 RBI's.